Ibrehem Rahman becomes the tenth contestant to exit 'Survivor: Palau'

By Reality TV World staff, 04/01/2005

And then there were two. With their tribe's unprecedented losing streak showing no signs of ending, Survivor: Palau's Ulong tribe lost its sixth straight Immunity Challenge during last night's CBS broadcast of the show's seventh episode, resulting in Ulong castaways Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard deciding to vote Ibrehem Rahman, the third remaining member of their tribe, out of the game.

ADVERTISEMENT

Survivor: Palau's seventh episode began with the tribes starting their sixteenth day in the game. With only three tribe members left, morale was understandably low at Ulong. Over at Koror, the tribe's already high spirits soared even higher when Ian Rosenberger, the 23-year-old dolphin trainer from Key Largo, FL, found an enormous clam that provided a lunchtime feast for his entire tribe. With the blood from the remaining clam shells attracting sharks, fortune further smiled upon the Koror tribe when Tom Westman was able to use a machete to slay one of the sharks -- providing the Koror castaways with an even better dinnertime feast of fresh shark steaks.

Retrieving their tree mail on Day 17, the tribes discovered that Survivor's classic SOS distress signal would serve as the episode's Reward Challenge, with the tribe that created the best and most creative signal receiving an airdrop of supplies. Needing flammable materials for their signal fire and apparently deciding that drastic times called for drastic measures, the Ulong tribe decided to tear down both its shelter and bathroom. Meanwhile, over at Koror, the tribe selected Caryn Groedel, Katie Gallagher, and Gregg Carey as its three competitors, leaving the tribe's other five members to simply look on and hope that the threesome's strategy would be successful.

In the end, despite their inability to successfully light their signal fire, the distress signal specialist determined that Koror's "Got Food?" signal was superior to Ulong's spelling of its tribe name. Constructed closer to the water and away from the tree line, Koror's signal was more visible than that of Ulong, winning Koror a supply crate full of food, wine and sewing materials.

Fishing on the morning of Day 18, Bobby Jon captured a large clam of his own, providing Ulong with some much need protein prior to the next critical Immunity Challenge. "We got protein, we got carbs, we got everything," gushed an upbeat Ibrehem.

Retrieving their tree mail, the tribes discovered that the day's Immunity Challenge would involve some type of sliding puzzle. After spending some time attempting to master the puzzles that they had received in their tree mails, the tribes assembled for the actual Immunity Challenge, at which time they discovered that the day's challenge would require the tribes to solve a life-size version of the same puzzle.

After selecting Coby Archa, Janu Tornell, Jennifer Lyon as Koror's three competitors, the tribe decided to have Coby serve as the "caller" while Janu and Jennifer physically moved the blocks that were floating in the ocean-based challenge set. With all three of its competitors required to compete, the only decision Ulong had to make was as to who would serve as its "caller" -- a position for which the team selected Bobby Jon.

As the challenge got underway it quickly became clear that Coby was far more comfortable than Bobby Jon in his position. Seemingly relaxed throughout the challenge, Coby appeared confident in his directions, while Bobby Jon appeared noticeably disorientated and confused, causing host Jeff Probst to openly wonder if the Ulong tribe was actually worse off than when they started the puzzle. With Koror beginning to open up a large lead, Bobby Jon begged off the caller position, handing the reins to Stephenie. While Ulong did begin to make significant progress under Stephenie, the gap that Koror had obtained proved too difficult for her tribe to close, resulting in Colby's Koror tribe winning its unprecedented sixth-straight Immunity Challenge victory and once again sending Ulong back to Tribal Council.

Back at camp prior to the evening's vote, Stephenie attempted get assurances that Bobby Jon planned to honor their previously agreed upon deal that, in return for Stephenie agreeing to vote out James Miller at their last Tribal Council, Bobby Jon would agree to vote out Ibrehem at their next Tribal Council. With Bobby Jon suddenly refusing to guarantee that he would do so, Stephenie attempted to make a similar deal with Ibrehem, only to see Ibrehem also appear noncommittal.

Despite his potentially dangerous decision to not guarantee Stephenie that he would vote for Ibrehem, Bobby Jon did so in the end, resulting in Ibrehem being voted out of the competition in a 2-1 vote.